The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that beginning with the Visa Bulletin for November 2015, USCIS will make a determination each month on whether there are more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are…

On October 6, 2015, a Federal Court in Washington denied the emergency motion for Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) filed on September 28, 2015 in a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit came after the U.S. Department of State (DOS) published a…

On Friday, October 9, 2015, consular operations at all embassies and consulates will be closed to the public due to a planned consular systems upgrade. Application Service Centers (ASCs) connected to certain posts may also be affected by the systems…

On September 28, 2015, a class action lawsuit was filed against the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) over last minute changes to the Visa Bulletin for October 2015. In Mehta v. DOS, plaintiffs…

We are disappointed to report that many applicants will continue to face lengthy waits before they can submit their I-485 adjustment of status applications for permanent residence. On September 25, 2015, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) published a revised…

The U.S. Congress continues to negotiate on the FY2016 budget, but if no agreement is reached, or if a Continuing Resolution is not passed, or no other stopgap method implemented, we may have another government shutdown on October 1, 2015.…

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will suspend final adjudication of employment-based Form I-485 applications because the Department of State reports that the statutory cap has been reached for the employment-based preference categories for fiscal…

This article was updated on September 25, 2015   Finally, some great news for green card applicants stuck in family and employment-based category backlogs! On September 9, 2015, USCIS announced that it has revised procedures that will allow certain green…

German citizens may now apply for U.S. Global Entry. Global Entry is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. At select airports, Global Entry members…

The latest Visa Bulletin (September 2015) shows significant retrogression under the EB-2 categories for China and India. EB-2 China retrogressed from December 13, 2013 back to January 1, 2006. Meanwhile, EB-2 India didn’t fare much better, retrogressing from October 1,…